Seeing True

04/13/2026

Agitation Meditation? Why would we want to seek out that which disturbs us?

It's a lot like allowing silty water to be still so things can settle and the water can clear. When we no longer seek to avoid our discomfort, we can better cope with reality. Better still, we can become far more effective in difficulty, which is not just good for us, it brings real benefits to those around us.

Full story and blog at https://www.seeingtrue.com/blog/agitation?

We are in a time where many are struggling with the affairs of the world. While it’s always a reasonable strategy to seek to seclude ourselves from that which troubles us, the biological truth is that we are designed by life itself to always receive and process information.

04/06/2026

Years ago, a mentor told me the hardest thing in life is not fighting what hurts us, but softening toward it. That kind of openness reveals a deeper potential, but it asks us to face every agitation, judgment, wound, and belief within us so healing can take place. Only then can we begin to live out the virtues we aspire to. Even more challenging is the call to forgive as well as non-judgment—again and again.

To be broken open and available to life… this is an uncommon kind of Grace.

For more contemplations to guide your day, and even your journey, visit our page.
Take what you like and pass it on. Nothing but the best, friends!

Grace is often misunderstood. It is not limited to pleasant moments or favorable outcomes. Rather, it is the mysterious presence woven through all of creation - through every aspect of life and living - including what we are quick to label as dark, wrong, or even evil

03/30/2026

Contemplations on Grace: Part 3
Rock Bottom as Grace

Contemplations on Grace is a brief, behind-the-scenes video series offering a glimpse into the writing and reflection process behind the Saga of Grace. In these short contemplations, Ron shares honest thoughts, questions, and insights as the work unfolds - unpolished, unfiltered, and grounded in Grace. It’s an invitation to slow down, reflect, and witness how truth and transformation take shape in real time.

03/23/2026

Being Amazed

Real change often begins when something unsettles the way we see the world, or the way we see ourselves in the world. What once felt normalized starts to shift and captures our attention.

When we allow ourselves to be challenged by what is emerging, even our most established perspectives can give way to a new way of seeing, and through that a new way of living. The changes that shape society often begin with that personal awakening.

Here's a reflection and contemplation, and a question:

What might be inviting you to see differently today?

In this profound exploration of redemption, we examine the historical impact of John Newton, whose journey from involvement in human trafficking to composing...

03/16/2026

Retribution or Restoration?

Restorative justice is a remarkable concept and practice. It asks us to set aside desires for retribution, and instead ask what is needed to make things right.

It may be that our worldly ideas of "consequences" and "karma" satisfy our need to be vindicated and justified, yet the woundedness that fuels it only results in still more wounds inflicted upon others, and sometime back upon ourselves

Genuine Grace, which is radical in nature, and not at all religious, reminds us that every life holds both brokenness and potential in the same moment. When our actions are guided by such an understanding, we are able to be healed and to heal others through it.

What might change if we are guided by such a powerful mirror as this?

For more contemplations and reflections, check out our blog:
https://www.seeingtrue.com/grace

03/09/2026

Contemplation for the Day(s) at Hand

“Grace belongs to the broken too.”

These words remind us that “Grace" is not reserved for the polished, the perfected, or the pleasantries of life. It is certainly much larger than our religious and cultural orientation that prefers to avoid darkness and seemingly irreconcilable tensions.

"Radical" or "Gnarly" Grace meets us in the places where life has cracked open our certainty and exposed our humanity. Not broken, but available for something unexpected. It invites us into engagement with a way of experiencing that is beyond what we can grasp.

Somehow, mysteriously, every one and every thing belongs.
That idea is one well worth wrestling with our selves.

For more on ideas to expand our experience of a Radical Perspective on Grace:

https://www.seeingtrue.com/grace

Grace is often misunderstood. It is not limited to pleasant moments or favorable outcomes. Rather, it is the mysterious presence woven through all of creation - through every aspect of life and living - including what we are quick to label as dark, wrong, or even evil

03/02/2026

“You can’t have a light without a dark to stick it in.”
~ Arlo Guthrie

We think Arlo is onto something. Let's call it "radical grace."

No, not the warm, pleasant notion, and not the religious one. Instead, let's call it "gnarly grace," the shadow realm where ancients like the Tibetans knew that renewal and transformation were formed ... in darkness ... through loss, and suffering, and sometimes tragedy. Carl Jung determined these shadowlands are the one place none of wish to tread, yet which prove to be most fertile, and that our wisest choice would be to explore our inner, unknown selves, even as we balk.

At Seeing True, we've decided to explore this "gnarly grace" that infuses all of life and creation. Check out our new content. We'll meet you there. https://www.seeingtrue.com/grace

As always, take what you like and pass it on.

Grace is often misunderstood. It is not limited to pleasant moments or favorable outcomes. Rather, it is the mysterious presence woven through all of creation - through every aspect of life and living - including what we are quick to label as dark, wrong, or even evil

02/23/2026

Contemplations on Grade - Episode #2
The Thought Process for Plot and Characters for "Grace Resurrected"
Novel #4 in the Saga of Grace series
https://www.ronaldchapman.com/the-saga-of-grace

How in world do you conceptualize the future of America three decades hence, much less the philosophy of an all-inclusive Grace that is not a matter of faith or religion? What kind of inner growth is needed for the protagonists, Kevin Pitcairn and Maria Elena Maldonado, in order for them to become unconventional spiritual leaders operating in the presence of great societal upheaval and violence? How to use story to frame a state profoundly beyond the deep tensions of today?

Follow along these explorations into context, philosophy, plot, characters and writing.

02/16/2026

Closing Out the Week of Love and Loving (Post Valentines Day Reflection)

Because love can have no conditions ...

To love another is to place no conditions or expectations of any kind. That requires a generosity of spirit that cannot be sustained if we withhold that same grace from ourselves. When we demand or find fault, we block the flow of love.

The father of therapeutic practice, Carl Rogers, called this unconditional positive regard, which means learning to let go of our opinions, embracing both light and shadow, trusting that worth is not earned but inherent. From that place of wholeness, loving becomes less an effort and more a natural expression of who we are.

It is a high standard, yet it is the only one that ultimately suffices. We are merely practicing that which we know each of us most desires.

Wishing each and every one all possible Grace and Love!

For more free content, visit our blogs:
https://www.seeingtrue.com/blog

Practice for an Engaged Life

02/09/2026

If You Can't Love Everyone, It's Not Love:
Love has no conditions and no expectations
(Note: I learned this the hard way, a story told in this blog)

First, this painstaking reality. It’s not very easy to get over all the things within us that keep us from loving without condition. In fact, it proves to be the work of a life time, always moving toward an impossible ideal, and never quite arriving because there is always something or someone new to push us beyond our limits and reveal the judgments within us.

Here's a simple assignment for this week of loving that leads to Valentines Day:

Who do you believe you love? Do you have any expectations of them? Do you place any conditions upon them?

Who do you not love? What expectations or conditions do you project that keeps you from love?

My long-time mentor, the one who facilitated this inner work with me, would say that it is a most powerful medicine for what ails us, as individuals and collectively.

Full story here:

02/02/2026

Acceptance as an Act of Love:
A Nudge for a Month of Loving

What a psychic entanglement!

Each of us wishes to be seen and accepted for who we are, to be free of conditions and expectations placed upon us, yet it can often be challenging for us to offer that to others. It is the strange conundrum of the second greatest commandment, to love others as ourselves.

For many of us, the solution begins by telling ourselves the truth about our judgments, conditions, expectations and grievances ... upon others and upon ourselves.

A month of loving might just start by admitting those realities.

Nothing but the best, friends. It cannot be otherwise.
For more content, freely offered, check out our blog site.
Take what you like and pass it on.
https://www.seeingtrue.com/blog

01/26/2026

A Backstory for "Grace Resurrected" (Book #4 of the Saga of Grace)
Reflections on Living Out Radical Grace as a Way of Being

The present challenges of our world present a unique circumstance for all of us. Here are a few thoughts to complement this new series of Contemplations on Grace.

Radical Grace is not permissiveness — it is non-reactivity:

Non-judgment does not mean nothing matters.
Unconditionality does not mean everything is acceptable.
Forgiveness does not mean harm is ignored.

It means:

Our work in the world does not shame or diminish others.
We prioritize dignity rather than deficiencies.
Accountability without humiliation.
Repair transcends punishment.

That which is unhealed in us will be expressed through us, which is why violence begets more violence even if most subtle.

That which is whole within us will heal others and the world.

The question is not whether we take action, rather how we act without punishment and harm.

Better still, how do we reform or create culture that is restorative?

This a call to love in action through the lives we are living.

Welcome to Contemplations on Grace - a behind-the-scenes video series offering an intimate look into the heart of the writing process of Ronald Chapman.In th...